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Since the question does not state living or dead nor fictional or real I am inclined to bring along the Time Traveller from the H.G. Wells novel, The Time Machine. Since that guy travels through time there is a good chance that a past or future self may appear and us get off this god-forsaken island.
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Ok. I could answer this question as a 'yes' or 'no' but the geek in me is crying out for clarity. Brace yourselves.
Intelligent life existing somewhere else in the expansive universe is a compelling idea. It implies that some day different species could meet and strike up a friendship or war and epic adventures would ensue. The drake equation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation) with its original assumptions in 1961 says that 10 potential civilizations exist. There are a number of variants that attempt to refine this calculation with mixed results. Some suggest there are many more, others say much fewer.
My personal opinion is that if abiogenesis occurred here then if the conditions are right elsewhere, life can form there. If your a religious person then you'll have to divine the intent of your creator and if life elsewhere was part of the plan.
There are still many factors to be considered when thinking about other intelligent life and contact. For one, the time scale for the universe is so vast that for two space-faring civilizations to develop in parallel and then find each other is mind-boggling difficult. A quick rough example (this is from the top of my head...which is a dangerous place) would be if two people were magically dropped at random points onto an earth empty of anyone else and each randomly placed in a time window of 100,000 years - what are the odds that they would appear close enough in terms of location and time that they could find each other before they died of natural causes? Pretty slim. What about even finding evidence of each other? Still pretty slim. That is kinda like what our universe is like. Really, really big and it has been around for a really long time.
I hear you saying: "So time and location are issues. Both only apply to contact right? Niether affect the actual existence of life elsewhere, right?" That is true. But without contact of some kind, even archeological evidence like an ancient radio signal, we can never confirm our hypothesis that life could exist. So the question: "Does life exists elsewhere?" is still tantalizing and I have hope that life does exist out there but my hope of ever seeing humanity being connected to a larger intergalactic community is incredibly slim to the point of despair. -
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A gift card to a fishing shop.
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Matt Gantner’s Bio
graphic and interactive designer
